DEFINITION OF TEACHER
Conference recognises that only those who have undertaken and completed training and statutory qualifications can be described as being teachers.
Conference believes that the employment of unqualified teachers in schools is a threat both to the education of students within that school, and to the professional development and status of those unqualified teachers, who are likely to find themselves paid less and to be working in worse conditions.
Conference rejects any notion of an ‘unqualified teacher’ status, other than as being a recognised route towards being a qualified teacher.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:
1. engage with all appropriate bodies to achieve a consensus and regulatory definition of who can be described as a teacher;
2. support any individual employed in a school as teacher in seeking support in professional development, leading to qualified teacher status, and to being employed on the same terms as qualified teachers;
3. to continue to place the demand for a qualified teacher for every child at the heart of our campaign for education; and
4. call upon whichever party forms the next government to bring forward legislation to this effect.
Conference notes that:
1. the Coalition’s flagship policy of opening ‘free’ schools regardless of local demand for school places and without the support of the whole education community in local areas is proving to be costly, wasteful and divisive;
2.
3. whilst some free schools have succeeded, many have unfilled places and some have seen catastrophic failure in leadership due in large part to the absence of the requirement to employ qualified teachers; the Secretary of State continues to use powers to force 'failing' schools to become academies, handing them over to sponsors without
1

4.
5. democratic or transparent process and often against the clear wishes of parents; the Labour Party has made it clear that it will not reverse the governme nt’s reforms, despite the increasing body of evidence that free schools and academies do not lead to better standards of education, and that there is growing concern about financial mismanagement and, at times, unacceptable financial practices; despite anti-trade union practices and rhetoric, there is the potential to organise in Free schools, as evidenced by the successful strike action at
STEM6 in Islington, where members took strike action in defence of their conditions of employment and the right for a trade union to be recognised; and
6. many local councillors are aware of the difficulties the establishment of
Free Schools creates, and have been supportive in opposing them, and in defending the rights of teachers and students within them.
Conference believes that:
(i) the Secretary of State's reform agenda remains motivated by ideological commitment to a "supply side revolution" and creation of a market of competing schools and flies in the face of mounting evidence about how to improve school systems;
(ii) this privatisation and deregulation of education is contributing a sense of deep seated crisis in the education system and is failing to meet the basic demand for school places; and
(iii) the government’s attempt to create a new ‘middle tier’ is incoherent and wholly inadequate to the task required of it.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(a) continue to oppose vigorously both forced and voluntary conversions and the creation of free schools by working with the AAA, parents and
(b) other stakeholders; call on the government to restore the role of Local Authorities as a
‘critical friend’ to schools offering support and challenge in raising
(c)
(d) standards; call on the government and opposition to commit to creating a new regulatory framework that demands a ‘level playing field’ between all schools – regardless of type – and to ensure that every child has a qualified teacher; continue to support members in academies and free schools to ensure there is no undermining of national pay and conditions;
2

(e)
(f)
(g)
(h) continue its longstanding financial support for the Anti-Academies
Alliance and other campaigning groups opposed to academisation and free schools as part of the wider National Campaign for Education; call upon the Labour Party, should it become the next government, to convert Free Schools into locally maintained schools under the aegis of local and democratically elected education authorities; congratulate members at STEM 6 on their successful action, and build on their experience to advise members in Free Schools of their rights and the support the can receive from the Union; develop an alternative democratic governance of all schools, in particular academies and Free Schools, and publish this in a pamphlet form to be sent out to members and the education and political communities. This new governance to include the election of school governors and to represent local interests. Governors should include support staff, teachers, parents, local authority elected members and possibly pupils.
OFSTED
Conference notes that:
1.
2.
3. the OFSTED process is unsatisfactory; teachers have known for some time that OFSTED is a flawed system.
The real purpose of OFSTED is not to improve standards but to show that government policies are working and to unfairly criticise teachers. OFSTED criteria are used to bully teachers. Teachers would welcome a chance to show their skills by fair and constructive observations. OFSTED fails to do this;
Professor Robert Coe, Director of Durham University’s Centre for
4.
Evaluation and Monitoring, whose work on school standards has been cited by the Secretary of State was quoted in the TES as saying, “the approach of England’s schools inspectorate, OFSTED, to school improvement is not supported by research”. He also told a major conference on research in education that practice in schools needed to be more closely linked to academic analysis. “OFSTED”, he said, was
“part of the problem. It is not research based or evidence based”; and lesson observations based on narrow minded OFSTED criteria lead to increased workload, undue stress and illness.
Many OFSTED inspectors have not taught for a sustained period in a classroom for decades.
Conference recognises that the current approach to school inspection is one symptom of a wider problem: the lack of a coherent vision for education, trust in
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teachers, ministerial policies which de-professionalise teachers and a raft of accountability frameworks which are dis-jointed, piecemeal and deeply harmful to teaching, education and social justice.
In building the case for an alternative approach to accountability, Conference instructs the Executive to fully utilise the evidence from the recent Executive delegation to Finland, a nation where, instead of ‘inspecting’ schools, the
Government invests in initial teacher education, values excellent professional development and models ‘evidence- informed’ policy making.
Conference believes an Independent Review is urgently needed to examine:
(I) all systems of accountability which schools are currently subject to, in particular, the use of examination results for accountability purposes and the role of OFSTED and Estyn in institutional evaluation; an
(II) how to secure a single system of institutional accountability which fosters ownership of evaluation and development by the profession and school communities.
Conference also expresses its serious concern that the outsourcing of OFSTED inspections to private organisations has the potential to create a fundamental clash of interests, with, for example, inspectors with relationships with an academy chain inspecting schools that could subsequently be taken over by that chain.
Conference believes that:
(i) OFSTED is not fit for purpose;
(ii) OFSTED is the root cause of stress and illness in many teachers;
(iii) OFSTED delivers no benefits to teaching and learning and is primarily a political tool aimed at bullying teachers and extending forced academisation.
Conference therefore has no confidence in OFSTED and instructs the
Executive to work with other teaching unions and academics to:
(a) commission research into the impact of OFSTED on the educational
(b) experience of children, and into the impact of alternative monitoring and evaluation systems, such as those operating in Finland; recommend, publicise and build support for a credible evidence based
(c) alternative to OFSTED, run by and for practicing teachers, which is respected as fair, professional, developmental and supportive; and establish a broad based campaign, alongside other unions, academics, parents, students, and political and community organisations, to abolish
OFSTED;
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(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h) produce a Union database identifying the outcomes of all OFSTED inspections together with the names of lead inspectors in order to determine recurring pattern; call on the Welsh Government to review the operation of ESTYN and the newly reorganised Regional Consortia to develop a system of school improvement that includes support as well as challenge. In building the new system unions should be fully consulted to ensure that the outcome is a system that is agreed by those who use not imposed on them from above; develop and intensify the work with the Too Much Too Soon Campaign to oppose the new approach announced by OFSTED in March to early years inspection and seek withdrawal of the OFSTED letter to inspectors; demand an Independent Review of the effect of the current school accountability mechanisms on children and young people, on teaching and learning, on professional practice and teacher well-being, and on schools and their ability to serve their local community; and develop with relevant partners new models of accountability based on what works well in other countries where teacher professionalism and trust are key to high standards of education.
Conference further calls on the Executive to investigate procedures for declaring and acting on a trade dispute over the workload and stress implications of OFSTED.
STAND UP FOR EDUCATION – STAND UP FOR TEACHERS
(PM2)
Conference notes that the Stand Up for Education campaign launched recently has proved the NUT right in its belief that it is possible to build a broadly based movement that can challenge the Government’s bullying and destructive approach to education and to teachers resulting in many good teachers leaving the profession, due in particular to workload pressures. Conference congratulates all Union members who have supported the campaign through engaging parents, pressuring politicians and striking on 26 March 2014.
Conference believes that it is essential that the Union continue to promote the three components of the Stand Up for Education campaign - engage - pressure
- strike - and that by doing this the Union is increasing pressure on Michael
Gove and his Government.
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Conferences notes that, as result of the street stalls and other campaigning, there is now strong evidence that parents and the wider public share the Union's concerns on issues such as Qualified Teacher Status, the right of Local Authorities to plan and build schools, and constant unplanned changes to the curriculum and assessment.
This mobilisation across England and Wales, in combination with Twitter and
Facebook has begun the process of moving the Union into social movement trade unionism, following the example of other unions internationally and in particular the Chicago Teachers Union.
Conference further congratulates members for the successful campaigning which forced the Government to publish the results of the workload diary survey carried out in March 2013, which showed a big increase in hours worked by all teachers. Conference condemns Michael Gove for this increase which has resulted in incredible stress and loss of many effective teachers from the profession due in particular to workload pressures.
Conference notes that the outcome from the STRB when it was asked to remove all statutory protection of teachers conditions of employment was in stark contrast to responses to previous Secretaries of State. The joint strike action in June and October and the ongoing action at school was the background to success in holding on to most elements in the STPCD.
Conference further notes positions which the Secretary of State could have adopted to cause the Union to suspend strike action:
I. Commitment to participating personally in the discussions which are now on-going, which should deal with the direction of Government policy, not simply about its implementation, and in meetings with the NUT, NASUWT and UCAC which seek to resolve the Union
’s dispute.
II. Agree to the immediate demands on pay, workload and accountability agreed by the Executive, including continued publication of pay spine points and guidance to schools on portability and budgeting for all teachers to make pay progression, pending the outcome of discussions on broader policy on teachers’ pay and conditions.
III. Agree that the proposed study on the health and deployment implications of working to 68 should also consider whether 68 is an appropriate pension age for teachers, and agree to publish a valuation of the
Teachers’ Pension Scheme conducted on the basis of the 2010 criteria and factors.
The strike on 26 March 2014 went ahead because of the Secretary of State’s negative response to these reasonable demands. This strike was a success, with much positive reporting from all over England and Wales. Conference congratulates all the members who took part in this action and the many NUT representatives that encouraged them.
To build on the success of the current campaign, Conference instructs the
Executive to put in place the following campaign elements:
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A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
J)
K)
A parliamentary lobby on 10 June 2014, with the aim of securing lobbyists from every constituency across England and Wales.
Encouraging local associations and divisions to ensure local lobbying takes place in the run up to the national lobby.
Mobilising for the 21 June 2014 national demonstration in London called by the
People’s Assembly under the banner of
Stand Up For Education .
Continue to develop those elements of the Stand Up For Education
Campaign that takes the Union’s message to the public through street stalls and encouraging broad-based
“
Education Question Time
“ type events to capitalise on the success of those events already held.
Participation in the talks process and reporting to members on it.
F) Continue to press in the talks for negotiation about policy as well as implementation of existing policy and encourage members to contact their
G)
MPs about the inadequacies of the process.
Noting that the DfE may conduct enquiries looking at supporting work until
68 and at the workload arising from the accountability regime, find ways to
H)
I) encourage members to provide evidence for these reviews to demonstrate the barriers that teachers face.
Review of the progress made in the on-going talks with the DfE at its meeting on 22 May 2014, engaging with the NASUWT and UCAC on this review.
In the event that significant progress is not being made, draw up plans for a national strike in the week beginning June 23 rd – seeking to co-ordinate with other education and public sector unions where possible and showing flexibility to any timescales they may have. consult with members about a series of strikes through the autumn term and into 2015
– this should include putting the case for such action to members and consulting with them through random, representative surveys and factfinding from divisions, associations and regional briefings.
Continue the ASOS, in conjunction with the NASUWT, possibly with a focus on specified instructions in given weeks and give consideration to new
L)
ASOS instructions.
Train NUT representatives in all aspects of pay and appraisal policies.
M) Mobilise for TUC Day of Action on 18 October 2014.
In addition to the above, Conference instructs the Executive to:
(i) call on associations and divisions to organise reps’ briefings to select delegates to attend the lobby of Parliament and to mobilise for the June
21 st demonstration and the next strike action;
(ii) provide briefing materials for the abovementioned reps’ briefing aimed at securing the maximum participation in all parts of the campaign;
(iii) circulate information about local People’s Assembly groups to local associations and divisions, especially where transport is being arranged to
London for June 21 st ;
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(iv) encourage local associations to share examples of successful initiatives, which build public support – such as the Our Communities Our Schools campaign in Waltham Forest and learning from the Schools Our Children
Deserve campaign in Minnesota and the campaign run by the Chicago
Teachers’ Union;
(v) establish a set of demands on workload and accountability, retirement age and the restoration of the current pay scales around which we can mobilise members;
(vi) formulate a pay claim aimed at restoring the cuts in pay suffered by teachers since 2010, to be included as part of this campaign and any strike action;
(vii) use the information gathered on the effect of the March 26 th strike, to work with associations and divisions to improve member participation in any further strike act ion.”
CHILD POVERTY
Conference notes that:
1. approximately 3.5 million (27% of all children) in the UK live in poverty and that the UK has proportionally more children in poverty than most other rich countries and that one third of British children are forced to go without at least one of the things they need, such as three meals a day or adequate clothing;
2. prior to the 2010 general election, David Cameron said ‘Ending child poverty is central to improving child wellbeing’. Before the election there was also cross-party support for the Child Poverty Act which commits both current and future governments to take action to eliminate child poverty;
3. there is a clear class divide in society and that working class children are bearing the brunt of cuts to welfare and education;
4. the £22bn cuts in welfare spending being made in this single year will exacerbate this trend. In fact, cuts to housing and benefits, particularly to disability allowances, and the closure of Sure Start centres have created more poverty and distress;
5. currently in England 1.2 million children from poor families do not get free school meals and that 700,000 children from poor working families are not even entitled to this key support;
6. food banks opening at a rate of three a week across the country and the increasing number of families reliant on them. More than half of those using food banks are in work, but their wages do not cover the cost of
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food for themselves and their families. A third of food bank recipients are children according to a report by The Tressel Trust;
7. poverty is the single greatest threat to the well-being of children and families; growing up in poverty can affect every area of a child's development - social, educational and personal;
8. the recent report on homeless families by Shelter, which found that there are now approximately 80,000 homeless children in Britain. These children are living in emergency accommodation which is often unsuitable, unsafe and likely to have a negative impact on their education. This number could dramatically increase with the impact of the Bedroom Tax;
9. cutting spending on education is a false economy
– developing the skills of our young people is essential to economic growth and that children from poor families are more likely to struggle in education and are six times more likely to leave education with no qualifications than more well off children;
10. it is the role of trade unions to campaign aggressively against cuts and child poverty.Conference welcomes the support that the Union has given to organisations working in this area, particularly the Child Poverty Action
Group and also recognises the excellent work that the union has done in recent years in providing campaign material and resources in areas such as domestic violence and play. These should be used as a model for this campaign;
11. the survey of teachers which the Union conducted jointly with the Child
Poverty Action Group found that teachers had seen significant increases in children arriving at school hungry, being unable to go on school trips or afford uniforms. Teachers also reported children moving schools because they could no longer afford to live in the area;
12. the extension of Free School Meals to KS1 children in September 2014.
Whilst supporting this policy in principle, Conference is appalled at the way that this policy has been produced with no forethought on the effect of education in the schools affected. Many primary schools no longer have kitchens and have no space to give so many children lunch. The government has no idea of what expenditure is required in individual schools
– Mr Gove’s advice is simply that he is sure that schools will make it work;
13. whilst the Tory and Lib Dem coalition government asserts that the economy is improving and living standards are rising, schools see that families increasingly have to use food banks to survive and opportunities for young people continue to be restricted. Tuition fees and cuts to EMA have reduced access to higher and further education and any increase in employment is often in private sector jobs with poor job security, zerohours contracts, no access to pensions and on low pay; and
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14. this government has failed to set a target for reducing child poverty.
Conference welcomes the Government’s decision to fund free school meals for all infant children from September 2014. The health and educational benefits of providing healthy free lunches will greatly exceed the cost to the public purse.
Conference notes, however, that children do not stop being hungry at 7 years of age.
Conference condemns any attempts by the media and politicians to scapegoat those on benefits. Conference notes that bankers and executives and particularly those in high level positions in academy chains and trusts, are continuing to draw excessive salaries, while those on benefits see a drop in income.
Conference notes that families hit by the bedroom tax are seeing a cut in income. These cuts disproportionately impact on families with members who have disabilities. This also affects the many children living in families where parents are separated and hampers their ability to visit families where ‘spare’ rooms are being targeted.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(i) ensure that child poverty is a key campaign issue in the Union’s work
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v) prior to the general election; continue working with anti-poverty charities and campaign groups involved in fighting against government cuts and for a living wage; approach the Campaign to End Child Poverty coalitio n and children’s charities about co-ordinating efforts to highlight before the next general election the growing child poverty problem; highlight the work of these organisations in union publications and materials; work with other unions eg UNISON, PCS and trades councils to actively
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix) campaign against child poverty; organise with these unions a joint lobby of parliament against child poverty; encourage local associations to invite speakers and consider affiliations to organisations campaigning on child poverty; continue to campaign for the re-instatement of the Education
Maintenance Allowance; continue to campaign for universal free school meals for all children and young people;
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(x)
(xi)
(xii)
(xiii)
(xiv)
(xv)
(xvi)
(xvii) continue to support the People’s Assembly against austerity and cuts and encourage local participation in the local People’s Assembly groups being set up across the country; work through Education International, the European Trade Union
Committee for Education and independently to resist the cuts and austerity agenda blighting the EU; highlight the consequences of poverty on children's access to learning and education and to conduct an immediate survey of members about the impact of poverty on children in their classrooms; continue to refute accusations that schools are to blame for the impact of the consequences of poverty on children, and to demonstrate and publicise the ways in which schools use all tools at their disposal to counteract the effects of poverty; commission a report on educational inequality and child poverty; t o make the Union’s support for Free School Meals to be made absolutely clear; to publicise the appalling lack of planning and forethought when this policy was announced; to survey schools involved and publicise the problems that they face, seeking to maximise the embarrassment to the government of the
(xviii)
(xix) difficulties that this policy will create; to resurvey the schools involved once the policy is in place, and publicise any negative effect on the education of children; support organisations working with families facing benefit cuts, severe housing need and debts due to benefit cuts;
(xx)
(xxi) oppose the bedroom tax and work with organisations campaigning against the bedroom tax; support campaigns against benefit cuts and highlight the impact of the bedroom tax and cuts to benefits on children; and
(xxii) raise the issue of child poverty with government and with politicians in the run-up to a general election.
ATTACKS ON TRADE UNIONS
Conference notes that the Coalition Government is determined to attack facilities time for trade union representatives. In September 2013 the
Department for Education launched a consultative review of facility time in
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schools. The consultation paper, which referred solely to the cost of facility time and neglected to mention the benefits to local authorities and other employers of having union representatives, was another illustration of the political will to undermine the role of trade unions. Research commissioned for the TUC from the University of Hertfordshire has found that for every £1 spent on facility time between £3 and £9 of benefits are accrued.
Conference further notes that the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party
Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill represents another attack on trade unions. The Bill will limit the activities that unions and other third-party organisations can undertake in the year before an election and cuts by around two-thirds the amount of money that can be spent on campaigning. New proposed limits on expenditure at a constituency level would have meant that at the 2010 general election the Union would not have been able to support the many effective campaigns organised by Hope not Hate and Unite Against
Fascism against the British National Party at the last election. The Bill also puts unnecessary, costly and overly bureaucratic burdens on unions by requiring them to appoint an independent assurer to validate membership lists and giving new powers for the Certification Officer to investigate union membership.
This is nothing short of Government interference in unions’ right to self-organise.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
1.
2.
Continue to work with the other education unions and the trade union movement more widely, wherever possible, to defend facilities time;
Provide Divisions with resources to help them make the case to general election candidates, councillors, local authorities and employers that
3. paid facility time is essential in continuing to support the efficient and effective delivery of a quality education service; and
Intensify lobbying work against the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party
4.
Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill and support calls by the TUC for it to be withdrawn in its entirety (or repealed).
Campaign for any future Labour government to repeal the Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration
Act and anti-Trade Union laws.
GENERAL ELECTION 2015
Conference notes that the next General Election is just over a year away and that education policy is likely to feature prominently as an electoral issue.
Conference notes the damage done to education, children and teachers by the
Coalition government and believes that more of the same will make this worse.
Conference also notes, and condemns, Labour’s education spokesperson
Tristram Hunt’s comments that he would not, if in office after the election, reverse most of the Coalition’s education policies. Conference also notes that the bitter experience of governments in France and Denmark over recent years shows that, whoever is in office after the next election, we will have to organise
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and fight to defend teachers and education. Conference believes that intervening in the general election 2015 can be a vital part of this process.
Conference believes also that the Union has a responsibility to campaign, together with other organisations of the labour movement, on the wider issues of social inequality and injustice, as well as on educational issues.
Conference welcomes the fact that labour movement and community campaigning has won pledges from the Labour Party to repeal the bedroom tax and the Health and Social Care Act; but notes that these moves are nowhere near enough to reverse trends to greater social inequality and injustice, and that all major parties say they are committed to continuing public sector cuts.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to produce, in addition to the education manifesto, a short list of demands with which the Union, in cooperation with other union and community organisations where possible, will approach parties and parliamentary candidates.
These demands should include the idea, proposed in the Union's 2011 pamphlet, that there is "an alternative to cuts, privatisation and job losses...
Taxing the banks is a fairer way to balance the UK budget..."
They should also include restoration of workers' trade-union rights taken away by 1980s-90s Tory legislation, and the full restoration of the National Health
Service as a well-funded public service rather than a subsidised market system.
Those ideas should figure together with educational themes in the Union's publicity campaign around the election.
Conference believes that the Union is in a good position to intervene in the general election 2015 positively promoting our policies and vision and highlighting the negative effects of government policy.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to seek the support of other organisations in drawing up a General Election Education Manifesto for use the pre-election period.
Conference believes this manifesto should cover the following areas in line with
Union policy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
School governance, place planning and local democracy;
Curriculum and pedagogy;
Assessment and awards;
Teacher and school accountability;
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Qualified Teacher Status, teacher professionalism and professional development;
Funding revenue and capital;
Early years provision and education;
Young people, education and employment; and
Further and Higher education as well as Lifelong learning.
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Conference further instructs the Executive to draw up a campaign plan to; i. Win support for this manifesto from teachers, parents, governors and the wider public; ii. Produce materials for members making a critical assessment of the education policies of the political parties; iii. Seek commitments from all parties and candidates of all parties which might be in government on all areas above and on teacher pay and conditions and engagement with their unions; iv. Seek support from other trade unions, the National Union of Students, other educational campaigns and academics to campaign on the wider issues of social inequality and injustice, as well as on educational issues; v. Continue to support initiatives working towards a National Campaign for
Education, including Education Question Times and, where possible in the run up to the election holding hustings.
This campaign could include: a. Billboard and other form of advertising; b. c. d. e.
The use of social media;
Regional Education Question Time hustings with invites to parliamentary candidates from the political parties;
Writing to parliamentary candidates from the main parties, particularly those in marginal constituencies, seeking commitments on key areas and publishing the results; and
Providing a model set of questions for members to send to parliamentary candidates.
PALESTINE
Conference welcomes the visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory by a delegation of Executive and non-Executive members in October 2013, and the strengthening of links between the National Union of Teachers and the General
Union of Palestinian Teachers.
Conference notes the ongoing oppressive and unjust regime imposed by the state of Israel on the Palestinian people and is especially concerned at the impact on young people and their families.
Conference endorses the following demands and calls on the British
Government to actively pursue these objectives:
1.
2. the dismantling of the 700 Kilometre long Wall condemned by the
International Court of Justice in July 2004; the ending of all illegal settlements which now control 42.7% of the West
Bank (UN figures);
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3.
4.
5. the ending of all moves to cut East Jerusalem off from the West Bank through a process of settlement expansion and the demolition of
Palestinian homes; the support for the UN call for the end of the blockade of Gaza; the dismantling of the Israeli army’s 532 Checkpoints (UN figures);
6.
7. the ending of the inhuman treatment of Palestinian Child Prisoners as documented by Defence for Children International/Palestine Section; the rescinding of the Government’s Prawer Plan to destroy Bedouin villages inside Israel and forceably transfer the people out of their established villages; and
8. the right of the Palestinians inside Israel to develop a curriculum which preserves their heritage and ends discrimination in education.
Conference reaffirms its commitment to campaigning in solidarity with the
Palestinians in their struggle for peace and justice and calls on the Executive to distribute the report of the 2013 delegation as widely as possible publicising it through the Teacher and all appropriate Union channels.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(i) support TUC policy, to “boycott the goods of, companies who profit from illegal settlements, the Occupation and the construction of the Wall”;
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii) pressure the UK Government to call on the Israeli Government to comply with international law and human rights treaties; work to win the backing of Education International and the ETUC(E) for these policies and to seek to collaborate with like-minded unions internationally; convey these views to the Israeli Teachers Union; express our solidarity with the GUPT for its objectives for education and discuss with them ways to develop this solidarity; call for an end to the discrimination against Palestinian students and teachers within Israel; encourage divisions to make links with Palestinian teachers and schools including organising delegation exchanges; encourage Associations, Schools and Divisions to publicise the report of the delegation to members; invite speakers to their meetings and encourage active membership participation in work on this issue;
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(ix)
(x)
(xi) organise a special meeting for Division representatives and International
Solidarity Officers to present the report, explain Union policy, outlining ways to develop the work and incorporate regular updates in Divisional
Secretaries briefings and school representatives training; and continue to campaign for the rights of Palestinian children including child prisoners and work to engage all members in this campaign encouraging individual membership of and affiliation to the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign and support for Action for Palestinian Children Prisoners; educate the membership through publications, divisions and intern ational solidarity officers of the ‘Pinkwashing’ propaganda used by
Israel to make their citizens and the wider world believe that they are progressive in respect of LGBT rights, while distracting attention away from the human rights abuses they have instigated by their occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
SPECIAL EDUCATION AND INCLUSION
Conference reiterates its policy of 2011 of supporting inclusive education and developing disability equality in mainstream schools.
Conference recognises that Part 3 of the Children and Families Bill (though expanding the protection of a Statement through the Education Health and
Care Plan (EHC Plan) to 0-25 year old children and young people), does not provide adequate safeguards for the large majority of children and young people with special educational needs at the school/college based stage.
Conference is further concerned at the damaging impact and pace of change envisaged by the government, in particular:
1. the introduction from April 2014 of mandatory changes in school funding and the higher needs block;
2. the negative impact of these funding changes on both mainstream and special schools additional needs block and Age Weighted Pupil Unit, that will lead to a reduction in funding for special educational needs (SEN);
3. the proposed change over from Statement to EHC plan of three years from September 2014;
4. notwithstanding the late incorporation of disabled children/young people without SEN into some of the statutory duties, there remains a significant disconnect between SEN and Disability Equality Duties which cover many of the same pupil/student population;
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5. the increased statutory responsibility on Local Authorities at a time of reduction in Local Authority budgets, in particular reductions in specialist and advisory teachers in SEN and disability; and
6. proposals to phase out teaching assistants;
7. the weakening of the presumption of inclusion by conflating previously different tests that will make it far harder for those children and young people with SEN who want a mainstream placement to secure one;
8. the loss of the Individual Education Plan and the new Draft Code of
Practice placing the responsibility on class and subject teachers for recording progress and meeting parents of children at the School Stage.
This has significant increase of workload implications;
9. the right of Special Academies and Special Free Schools to enrol children and students with SEN on an indefinite basis, without an EHC
Plan, which is not permitted for maintained and non- maintained Special
Schools.
Conference recognises the negative impact of the above changes on the inclusion and education of disabled children and young people and those with
SEN. Furthermore, Conference condemns comments from The Equality and
Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that Inclusion is only right for some disabled children.
Conference therefore instructs the Executive to enter into urgent policy discussions with the Opposition and other interested parties in the voluntary sector, trade unions and parents’ organisations, to develop a strategy of damage limitation and to ensure alternative mechanisms are developed to enable all children and young people with SEN to have their needs met and to maximise the development of inclusive practice throughout the education system. Following these discussions and not later than January 2015
Conference instructs the Executive to launch a public campaign to ensure this plan becomes a General Election issue.
In order to safeguard the provision for disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs and to ensure that teachers’ workload is not increased in meeting these needs, Conference instructs the Executive to carry out the following:
(i) produce guidance for all members on the impacts the above changes will have on students and staff;
(ii) provide advice and support to Divisions urging them to ensure the Local
Offer fully reflects the choice of a range of quality inclusive mainstream provision with sufficient places, for children and young people, with the whole range and severity of impairments;
17

(iii)
(iv)
(v) launch a publicity campaign on the impacts and the possible alternatives; support for members on a school-by-school basis and across Local
Authorities in balloting for sustained industrial action to protect existing provision, jobs and conditions; and campaign for a fully inclusive education system which ensures that disabled children are not excluded from education on the grounds of disability.
A LOTTERY IN SEN PROVISION – WHO WILL PAY THE PRICE?
Conference condemns the introduction by Government, with unnecessary speed, a set of poorly tested and ill planned SEN reforms under the guise of a promise to parents that provision for children and young people with SEN will improve and that co-ordination and cooperation between different children’s services will be made easier.
Conference notes that:
1. analysis of free school admissions by the Union shows less inclusive pupil intakes;
2. the availability of specialist advisory and support services to help teachers identify and meet the special educational needs of children is a postcode lottery with pupil need far outstripping the availability of services;
3. Government approaches to curriculum development, assessing pupil progress and assessing school teacher and performance take insufficient account of evidence about child development, ranges of pupil ability and additional educational needs – this hinders and frustrates inclusive practice, teaching and curriculum planning;
4. the proposed new SEN Code of Practice makes the role of each agency far less clear and will lead to a situation where schools are expected to act as the lead agency for children with additional needs where educational need is not the reason for a team around the child;
5. equity and appropriate child centred provision for children with special educational needs is put at risk by current education reforms, which stand in stark contrast to former approaches such as the ‘Every Child
Matters’ policy; and
6. Government/Ofqual changes to exams and qualifications and the way these are used to judge schools’ positions in the league tables are at best exclusive and at worst discriminatory. For example, Ofqual’s moving of the goalposts in English Language GCSE by banning January exams and disregarding speaking and listening results (even from those
18

students that had already sat them) was a blatant attempt to disguise improvements in results by pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds and those with SEN. At the same time the narrowing of qualifications deemed worthy of success excludes and downgrades the achievements of students who follow a less academic route such as
BTEC and underlines the Secretary of State’s ridiculous statement that all pupils should be above average.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(i) commission research on the cumulative impact of the Government’s education “reforms” on pupils with SEN in various settings;
(ii) campaign to retain an appropriate role for teacher expertise and teachers’ professional judgement in decisions about appropriate provision for a child and naming a school;
(iii) ensure the “Year of the Curriculum” resources produced by the Union support and empower teachers in all settings to develop the curriculum for pupils with SEN;
(iv) closely monitor the use, and impact of, personal budgets and direct payments to parents of children with special needs for education provision.;
(v) continue to campaign in defence of pupil referral units and to demonstrate the pivotal role for these schools in re-integrating individual pupils and offering behaviour support to schools; and
(vi) continue to campaign, through the Compass Inquiry, for a middle tier in education to ensure collaboration between- and shared responsibility across- all schools in a local area, as the only way to ensure an education system which is equitable and accessible for children and young people with special educational, additional or behavioural needs;
(vii) campaign for Ofqual to be held to account and to make changes only at the start of each new cohort of students, (not halfway through the course as happened with the speaking and listening changes). Demand that
Ofqual publish their Equality Impact Assessments on the changes from modular to linear GCSEs and the disregarding of the Speaking and
Listening grade in English; and
(viii) continue to campaign for a broad education and set of qualifications right through secondary schools and for the proper recognition of qualifications besides academic GCSEs (BTEC, Arts Awards, etc).
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DISCRIMINATION OF OLDER WOMEN TEACHERS
Conference is concerned that there is an increasing trend in schools of targeting teachers who are over 50 with a view to end their employment early.
Sickness Absence and capability procedures are commonly used against teachers in order to prematurely end their contracts. Conference notes the marked increase in casework involving teachers in this age category, especially women teachers, who make up the vast majority of members in the Union. This has a detrimental impact on their health and wellbeing, their living standards and future pension.
Conference notes that:
1. the recent changes to the Appraisal and Capability Procedures, introduced by the Government, means that schools are able to use the
2. threat of capability much more easily; the abuse of ‘Career Stage Expectations’ are leading to increased expectations of older teachers, often above and beyond the legal requirements of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document;
3.
4. this group of teachers are more likely to be paid on the Upper Pay Scale and are therefore seen as more ‘expensive’ to schools; and many women in this age category will also be coping with the symptoms of the Menopause.
Conference welcomes the TUC guidance for union representatives on
Supporting women through the Menopause, and the research carried out by
The British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF) who commissioned researchers at the University of Nottingham, led by Professor
Amanda Griffiths, to explore women's experience of working through the
Menopause.
Menopausal women can experience hot flushes, headaches, tiredness and sweating. High workplace temperatures, poor ventilation, poor or non-existent rest or toilet facilities, or a lack of access to cold drinking water at work can make all of these symptoms worse. Other symptoms can include blocks of memory loss, not being able to finish a sentence, feelings of anxiety, increased stress levels and loss of confidence as well as excessive, unpredictable menstruation.
Conference believes that employers have a responsibility to take into account the difficulties that women may experience during the Menopause, and that female workers should be able to expect support and assistance during what is, for many, a very difficult time.
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Conference notes that the Union has included some of these issues in a
Women's Health and Safety briefing. However, Conference believes that there needs to be a much more thorough document produced that can suggest reasonable adjustments, advise on discriminatory matters and share practice on how we can support older women teachers.
Conference calls upon the Executive to:
(i) commission research into the impact of recent policy changes on older members especially on women teachers and the links to the
Menopause;
(ii)
(iii) urgently draw up a guidance document on this issue for local
Associations to promote within their area; and produce training materials for Officers and Reps to highlight these concerns and provide practical ways of supporting our members.
RACISM AND IMMIGRATION
Conference notes:
1. the government’s plans to introduce a new Immigration Bill, which aims, in the words of the Home Secretary, to create “a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants”;
2. That currently the new Bill is likely to include proposals to:
(i)
(ii) extend powers to take fingerprints, check passports and intervene in weddings and civil ceremonies; impose a levy on the use of the NHS for time limited immigrants;
3.
4.
(iii) impose checks on applications for bank accounts and driving licenses; and
(iv) reduce the number of grounds for appeal from 17 to 4, following the imposition of a deport first, appeal later policy. the continuing campaign in the media, frequently backed by government spokespersons and political parties such as UKIP, against immigrants and making use of inaccurate ‘evidence’ to back up reports of ‘benefit tourism’ and the claiming of benefits; and the continuing prevalence of Islamophobia, as seen in the reactions, for example by, the English Defence League who sought to whip up racial and religious hatred following the tragic murder of Lee Rigby.
21

Conference further notes the tragic consequences of people’s desperation to migrate in, for example, the deaths of large numbers of migrants who drowned near Lampedusa.
Conference believes that the government’s proposals will:
(a) contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of racism and intolerance which will impact on immigrants, both legal and illegal, as well as on ethnic minority communities in this country;
(b) extend the powers of the state to interfere in people’s private lives in a manner that is both demeaning and dangerous to civil liberties in this country;
(c) put at risk the lives and well-being of children and their parents, and jeopardise their right to a decent education; and
(d) are likely to contribute to a poisonous atmosphere in the run up to the
European and local elections in June 2014.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(I) work with the Trade Union Congress to oppose the proposals in the
Immigration Bill;
(II)
(III) publicise the Union’s opposition to the bill to members, and to give members guidance; produce and disseminate teaching materials on topic of immigration.
Free Schools and Sixth Form Funding
(PM2)
Conference notes that Coalition Government policies are threatening state comprehensive education and the rights of all children to be taught a broad and balanced curriculum by qualified teachers in adequately funded and wellresourced good local schools and Sixth Form Colleges
Conference believes that these policies are resulting in an increasingly fragmented, unaccountable, underfunded and privatised state education system in which teachers are scapegoated, de-professionalised and demoralised.
Further more, the recent announcement of £45 million to be spent on a highly selective Harris Sixth Form Academy in Westminster for 500 of the “brightest students” is a clear indication of the Government’s elitist approach to education policy. This enormous sum has been found for one school. At the same time
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there have been cuts of £100 million from sixth form colleges across the country. This has resulted in a narrowing of the offer to many students and threats to jobs. The most recent cut involves reducing funding by 17.5% for students over the age of 18. This will have a disproportional impact on disadvantaged students who benefit from three years at college.
Further aspects of government policy undermining our education service include:
 Spending £1bn of scarce education funding on free schools, many of which are undersubscribed and/or have opened in areas where there is no need for new school places.
 Wasting £8m of taxpayers’ money to pay off the debts of private schools which have become free schools as well as £15 million to upgrade their facilities and accommodation.

Failing to provide proper oversight of free schools and academies to the extent that many have been judged by Ofsted to be failing to provide an acceptable standard of education and there have been a number of well documented financial scandals.
 failing to determine whether there is a need in a particular area for a new school or college, thereby damaging existing institutions.
Conference instructs the National Executive to:
1. Hightlight and oppose cuts to Sixth Form Provision within the Stand up for
Education campaign
2. Continue to campaign for the right of LA to open new schools which are not free schools
3. Publicise the TUC Education is not for Sale report and use it in campaigning.
4. Support action up to and including strike action following successful ballots where jobs in Sixth Form provision in schools and in Sixth form
Colleges are threatened or where funding cuts threaten to result in increases in workload.
5. Explore the possibility of a National campaign against the establishment of the Harris Sixth Form Academy in Westminster.
ATTACKS ON TEACHERS ’ PAY AND CONDITIONS
Conference notes that teachers’ pay, pensions and conditions of service are all under attack by the Coalition Government. This is part of the general pattern where living standards have fallen for workers in the public and private sectors of the economy since 2008, and average wages are now no higher than they were in 2000. The situation for young teachers is particularly difficult with the combination of student loan repayments, tax and pension contributions resulting in them having a marginal rate of income tax of 49 per cent.
Conference congratulates NUT and NASUWT members and activists for organising the regional strikes in June and October 2013. The strikes were well
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supported and showed that the profession in united in its opposition to the
Government’s changes. The NUT declares its willingness to co-ordinate industrial action on pay offers with other public and private sector unions.
Conference condemns the:
1. deletion of the national pay scale;
2. removal of pay portability between schools;
3. introduction of school specific pay progression;
4. below inflation cost of living rise of just one per cent, which followed a three year pay freeze;
5.
Secretary of State’s determination to remove statutory limits on teachers’ work – 195 days a year, 1265 directed hours a year, PPA time, no cover and 21 administrative tasks;
6. continued increase in pension contributions;
7. removal of the one per cent pay rise for NHS staff and the continuing low pay for too many local government employees; and
8. t he government’s repeated attempts to divide the working class – private against public, employed against unemployed, etc.
Conference condemn s the Secretary of State’s attempt to persuade the STRB to make changes to limits on working time and cover, rights to PPA time and protection against bureaucratic tasks. Conference welcomes the STRB’s decision to retain statutory limits on working time and other key provisions in its
23rd report but notes that the STRB did recommend the removal of STPCD guidance and again failed to recommend any steps which would reduce teacher workload. Conference believes that the STRB’s report is nevertheless a huge rebuff to the Secretary of State, who was forced to back down on his proposals, and a victory for the sustained support by NUT members for the
NUT’s campaign.
Conference believes the changes to pay will:
(i) lead to a deterioration of industrial relations in schools;
(ii) lead to unfair pay decisions;
(iii) make teaching a less desirable career for graduates;
(iv) widen the pay gap between male and female teachers;
(v) undermine teacher morale; and
(vi) continued below inflation pay rises set back economic recovery.
Conference condemns the Secretary of State for imposing his changes to pay and pensions in the face of opposition from teachers and for failing to take any
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action to reduce teacher workload. Conference reaffirms its opposition to these changes and reaffirms its demand that they are withdrawn.
Conference believes these will:
(a)
(b)
(c) take teachers away from preparing lessons and marking; discourage graduates from entering the profession; and increase teacher workload, which is at an all time high.
Conference calls on the Secretary of State for Education immediately to:
(i) commit to participating personally in the discussions which are now ongoing, which should deal with the direction of Government policy, not simply about its implementation, and in meetings with the NUT which
(ii) seek to resolve our dispute; agree to the immediate demands on pay, workload and accountability agreed by the Executive in March, including continued publication of pay spine points and guidance to schools on portability and budgeting for all teachers to make pay progression, pending the outcome of discussions on policy on teachers’ pay and conditions;
(iii) Agree that the proposed study on the health and deployment implications of working to 68 should also consider whether 68 is an appropriate pension age for teachers, and agree to publish a valuation of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme conducted on the basis of the 2010 criteria and factors.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
A. continue the campaign of non-strike sanctions with the NASUWT;
B. support and encourage members to win victories at school and local level on pay policies, appraisal policies, working time and other issues, including through strike action where necessary;
C. continue to press the case for co-ordinated strike action with other unions involved in campaigns to defend members pay and conditions of service; and
D. publicise the four demands, in the previous section, to all members as a matter of urgency.
THE USE OF NUMERICAL TARGETS AND OFSTED GRADES IN SCHOOL
APPRAISAL AND PAY POLICIES (COMPOSITE)
Conference notes that because of different school pay policies that have been adopted in schools this academic year, teachers are now in a situation where they are having OFSTED grades imposed upon them in observations. Also
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they are having numerical targets imposed upon them relating to pupil progress during their appraisal and performance management cycle. Instead of progress towards agreed targets as the basis for lesson observation teachers are now being required to achieve good or outstanding OFSTED grades for all observations in their appraisal.
Conference further notes that:
1. the bases of these targets are pay policies that are not compliant with the NASUWT/NUT checklist;
2. targets are not based on mutual agreement but rather based on the need for schools to compete with each other in local and national league tables;
3. all unrealistic targets, that have not been met from 2014 can, and in many cases will, result in teachers not getting a pay increase due to the fact that the targets have not been met;
4. Ofsted graded lesson observations are the result of the fear that school management has of Ofsted inspections (where one day
’s notice is given) and the need to be “Ofsted ready”;
5. in many schools pay policies the number of Ofsted graded lesson observations exceed the NUT/NASUWT limit of three observations for any purpose;
6. teachers are being judged as failing if they do not achieve a good or outstanding judgement for an Ofsted graded lesson observations;
7. in many cases the Appraiser is not qualified to apply OFSTED criteria; and
8. these points result in increased stress to unbearable levels because in many cases teachers will not be awarded a pay increase because they have not achieved good or outstanding in all observations;
9. the idea that quality of teaching and learning can or should be reduced to a single “grade”, often based on a 20 minute snapshot of a single lesson, is fundamentally flawed;
10. numerical targets for individual teachers are also in themselves fundamentally flawed, as education is an inherently collective and collaborative process across a whole school; and
11. that there are schools in this country, and whole education systems elsewhere, in which different and better approaches to appraising the quality of teaching and learning, of schools, and of individual teachers are used.
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Conference believes that all observations in an appraisal/performance management review cycle should conform to the Union’s classroom observation protocol.
Conference calls upon the Executive to:
(i) advise members that they should not accept numerical pupil progress targets which are imposed or which they deem to be unachievable or otherwise inappropriate; and that the concept of ‘targets’ is inappropriate and that policies should refer instead to ‘objectives’;
(ii) support members in schools and across divisions/associations for ballots for action, up to and including strike action, where there are disputes over imposed targets or the imposition of Ofsted grading in respect of lesson observations;
(iii) work with appropriate bodies and individuals to produce materials outlining the full case against both numerical targets and Ofsted gradings of lessons;
(iv) these materials should include detailed examples both from this country and elsewhere of alternative and better approaches; and
(v) work with Local Authorities to recommend borough wide NUT/NASUWT compliant pay and appraisal policies.
CAPABILITY PROCEDURES
Conference notes that since May 2012 many schools have introduced
Capability policies that are based on or are exactly the same as the DFE Model
Capability Procedure. These policies in many cases mean that no:
1. informal capability stage exists, either within the capability or the appraisal procedure, to allow concerns to be addressed and resolved without going into formal capability proceedings;
2. adequate minimum period of time is provided for teachers to improve;
3. guarantee is given of support to help the teacher improve and no specified entitlements in terms of training, mentoring or counselling; and
4. guarantee is given that support programmes will, whenever possible, be agreed between the teacher and school management
Conference further notes that: These policies can be used in a way that is expedient to removing members from their jobs and allows school management to do this without supporting members to improve.
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Also that these policies can be used against teachers who are perfectly capable of doing their jobs.
It has also become apparent that many teachers at the top of the Upper Pay
Scale, or teachers over 50, especially women and many from ethnic backgrounds have been the victims of the use of these Capability Policies.
Conference reaffirms that all teachers should be entitled to adequate, resourced and agreed professional support, when subject to concerns about capability, which seeks to ensure that they are assisted to achieve their former standards of performance. Such support should in all cases be available initially on an informal basis, through the provisions of the appraisal procedure rather than through the capability procedure, and should only apply where genuine concerns about capability have been raised and discussed with the teacher through the appraisal process.
Conference therefore calls upon the Executive to review the Union’s guidance on appraisal and capability, including model procedures and accompanying guidance to local officers, representatives and members, to help secure procedures which:
(i) deal with capability concerns initially on an informal basis and as part of the appraisal process;
(ii) provide for the right to representation for the teacher concerned at all stages;
(iii) ensure full and fair discussion with the teacher as to whether, and if so why, the teacher is encountering professional difficulty;
(iv) ensure that informal support is indeed supportive in nature and based on an agreed and documented plan of support that emphasises training, mentoring and counselling where necessary;
(v) only set targets for improvement that are reasonable and achievable and provide an adequate minimum period of time for improvement review;
(vi) have an informal stage that is purely informal and cannot be reported to future employers under changes to legislation in 2012;
(vii) only move to a formal capability process if the teacher is unwilling to cooperate with the informal support programme or if problems continue after a period of applying a genuine support programme; and
(viii) continue to emphasise support for improvement during the formal process as well as during the informal support period.
Conference further calls upon the Executive to support members in schools with action, up to and including strike action, in schools that do not have
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policies on appraisal and capability which comply with the above requirements and other requirements of Union policy.
SUPPLY
Conference deplores the continuing erosion of supply teachers' pay and conditions of service. Conference notes that cover supervisors and other school staff are routinely used by many schools in place of qualified teachers.
Conference notes that supply teaching is now almost totally dominated by private agencies who provide very little training or support for supply teachers.
Conference sympathises with those teachers who work for many years on supply for private agencies without receiving any pension contributions.
Conference applauds the fact that the first NUT Supply Conference was held in
July 2013 and that it was a successful event.
Conference welcomes the publication of the NUT Charter for Supply Teachers outlining best practice in employing and supporting supply teachers and the work done thus far to promote the Charter, including contacting all supply teacher members and encouraging them to lobby their MPs in the run up to the
2015 General Election, and asking MPs to indicate their support for the principles of the Charter. Conference also welcomes the work done by the
Union to help secure the portability of DBS (formerly CRB) certificates but deplores the failure of supply agencies to allow this.
Conference calls on the Executive to consider the following:
1.
2. a national recruitment leaflet aimed at supply teachers; a campaign on pay and conditions which demands that private supply agencies pay better rates and that the DfE allows agency supply teachers the right to membership of the Teachers ’ Pension Scheme with mandatory contributions from employers;
3.
4.
5.
6. a campaign to put pressure on teaching agencies to ensure portability of
DBS certificates; to campaign for the re-establishment of local authority supply agencies; a national lobby of the DfE to highlight supply issues; a campaign 'Every Child Taught by a Qualified Teacher' to make parents aware; and
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7.
8.
9. a Union Committee or Working Party comprised of regional supply reps to be organised by the Executive and to be consulted on supply issues.
Encouraging local associations, divisions and regions to establish networks for supply teachers with the aim of bringing supply teachers together to discuss issues of concern and campaigning.
Using these networks identifying some local authorities where a campaign for the re-establishment of a local authority supply pool might prove successful.
TOO MUCH TOO SOON (COMPOSITE)
Conference notes the excellent work done by the Too Much Too Soon campaign which was launched in September 2013 to highlight the developmental damage done to children by inappropriate pressure put on them at an early age. This campaign has been organised by the Save Childhood movement and has made good links with the Charter for Primary Education. It aims to promote age-appropriate practice in primary education with a particular focus on the early years.
Conference notes the impact of cuts and a change in the funding formula to children’s centres, nursery schools and foundation stages in primary schools.
Conference notes that children in the UK start formal schooling earlier than anywhere else in the world. This has particular influence on summer-born children but the effects will be felt by all and can be damaging and long-lasting.
Conference agrees that the Union should support the campaign and publicise its 6 key objectives:
The six objectives of the campaign are to:
1. re-establish the early years as a unique stage in its own right and not
2. merely a preparation for school; protect young children's natural developmental rights;
3.
4.
5. prevent baseline testing; reinstate the vital role of play; call for an English developmentally appropriate Foundation Stage for children between the ages of 3 and 7 (until the end of Key Stage 1); and
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6. to Campaign in Wales for an assessment system which is formative and qualitative, does not constantly change and is sensitive to the needs of all learners.
Conference notes with concern, the Governments plans to introduce new
“baseline” testing for four year olds within the first two weeks of their reception year. Such testing can only cause stress and anxiety to children at the most formative stage of their school life. We believe that formal tests have no place in the early years and that the introduction of baseline testing would have a negative impact upon the education of young children.
Conference notes that the new curriculum is looking to assess children for
‘school readiness’ and yet there is no agreement amongst experts about what this means. Conference agrees that for the government school readiness is about being ready for tests, and pushing that expectation down to the Early
Years Foundation Stage will inevitably lead settings to increase formal instruction and reduce opportunities for play, self-initiated leaning and social development.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(i) continue to work with all campaigning groups and other trade unions to
(ii) create an alliance of forces who will build momentum for a campaign to boycott the phonics test; make members aware of the dangers of a school readiness assessment;
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi) continue to promote the work done by Too Much Too Soon, a campaign organised by the Save Childhood Movement in promoting good practice in primary education with a particular focus on early years and the damage that a school starting age of 4 can cause; promote research and good practice supporting a later starting age for formal schooling; p romote and campaign for a new “developmentally appropriate”, playbased early years framework for nurseries and schools, covering children between the age of three and seven; support divisions financially and practically in hosting forums for early years practitioners, parents, academics and other professionals to discuss all of the above;
(vii)
(viii) publicise the dangers of testing at four; and call on the Welsh Government to ensure that the Literacy and Numeracy framework does not adversely impact on the principles of play based learning in the Foundation phase.
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EARLY YEARS AND PRIMARY ASSESSMENT
Conference restates its commitment to assessment systems in England and
Wales which recognise children's achievements and provides information to teachers to aid their teaching. Assessment for system wide accountability should be decoupled from assessment of individual pupils. The present system, requiring the production of evidence of attainment and progress, deflects from assessment for learning. Too much emphasis is placed on assessment of learning and the generation of numerical data. A test driven culture in our primary and early years schools condemns children and teachers to preparing for the test and removes the focus from appropriate teaching and learning. This in turn creates an unhealthy environment of competition and does little but engender a feeling of failure in children and pressure on teachers.
Conference notes with concern the recent talk within government of reintroducing compulsory testing at age seven and also the talk of new
“baseline tests” for four year olds.
Conference believes that such tests have nothing to do with providing a quality education for the children within our schools and are devised to entrench a system of league tables that sets schools in competition with each other.
Conference further believes that children cannot learn in an environment where there is a constant fear of failure and this is why testing in primary schools is anti-educational.
Conference reaffirms its position against standardised testing at all stages of primary education.
Conference expresses its concern about directions given by the Chief Inspector of Schools to inspectors of Early Years, instructing them to focus on "how well children are learning and making progress..., evaluating whether children are being adequately prepared for the start of their statutory schooling", and notes that this is based on a utilitarian approach to childhood, and to learning.
Conference further notes that research into early childhood and learning has consistently shown that young children learn better and develop as balanced and stable individuals through the use of play and informal learning techniques, and can be harmed by the early imposition of formal learning.
In light of the above Conference urges the Executive to:
1.
2. campaign for an exciting curricula in England and Wales which put moderated, teacher assessment at the heart of the process through a system which scaffolds children’s learning and informs next steps; campaign for the removal of unrealistic floor targets and a recognition
3. that not everything of value can be measured numerically; campaign for sampling as a means of judging the quality of the system;
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4.
5. ensure that assessment is for children and teachers as partners in the learning process and not used as a punitive means of judging teachers' performance and pay levels; and campaign rigorously against any attempts to introduce further standardised testing in our primary schools.
Further, Conference welcomes the letter circulated by Early Childhood Action and the Charter for Primary Education opposing moves to more formalised learning, and calls upon the Executive to continue to advise members on how to defend a play based curriculum and to investigate the possibility of a mass campaign of principled non-compliance with any policies which erode children's right to play in the Early Years.
Conference notes that:
1. the new National Curriculum for primary schools is due to be implemented in school in September 2014; and
2. this new curriculum is accompanied by a number of new policies surrounding the assessment of children, most notably, the scrapping of national curriculum levels and a move to measuring children against national averages.
Conference believes:
(i) the specifications made in the new curriculum for the tested subjects are over prescriptive;
(ii) the specifications made in the new curriculum make for a dangerously over-crowded curriculum;
(iii) the emphasis on the tested subjects will squeeze all other subjects;
(iv) t he new curriculum encourages “teaching to the test”;
(v) t he new curriculum is based on a “transition belt” model of learning;
(vi) the new curriculum is overly focused on rote learning rather than deep understanding;
(vii) children ’s education will be harmed by a system that put ever more emphasis on targets and testing;
(viii) the proposed assessment arrangement will result in the majority of children feeling as though they are failures;
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(ix) all children deserve a broad and balanced curriculum; and
(x) the new curriculum is not in line with the needs of children and will damage children’s educational experiences irreparably.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
(a) work with teachers, other unions and campaigns such as the Charter for
Primary Education, the National Association of Primary Education, The
Too Much Too Soon Campaign, the Save Childhood Movement and
Early Childhood Action, to campaign for the withdrawal of the new
Primary Curriculum; and
(b) p roduce a document that publicises the Union’s opposition to the new curriculum and send to all primary members.
ORGANISING
Conference notes with regret the Government’s systematic attack on union organisation and that the Conservative Party may attempt to turn this into an issue at the general election.
Conference reaffirms the significance of facility time in the furtherance of good employer/employee relations and welcomes the support for this from many employers.
Conference calls on political parties to commit to maintenance of facility arrangements in their manifestos.
Conference welcomes the setting up of negotiating arrangements with many chains and the developing growth of union organisation within those chains.
Conference welcomes the fact that, despite the Government attacks, the Union has managed a significant growth in the number of school representatives and the number of trained Union representatives. The ability to access school membership records online for representatives is a significant advance in giving reps the opportunity to effectively organize. Conference welcomes the first signs of cluster activity amongst representatives.
Conference further welcomes the repositioning of Union resources to provide more staff working to support members and activists – in particular Conference welcomes the setting up of the central member advice line, which should also help association and division secretaries with their workload, and the recruitment of organisers to work on representative recruitment, building of lay structures and the defence of facility time.
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Conference recognises that, given the scale of the attack on the Union’s ability to organise, this repositioning may mean some things have to be done in a different way.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
1.
2.
Keep the campaign to protect facility time and local structures as a top priority; and
Do further work on joint union materials and by providing specific training and support for division secretaries on campaigning to secure dedelegation and enabling LAs to set up pooling arrangements for academies.
Recognising the important role played by school-based NUT representatives,
Conference further instructs the Executive to provide further resources aimed at enhancing recruiting, supporting and retaining representatives.
This work should include consideration of:
(i) A dedicated website for representatives;
(ii) More resources targeted at training representatives and more advanced courses;
(iii) Conferences for representatives;
(iv) More opportunities for reps to organise or communicate with one another online;
(v) Consultation with school reps on the Union’s website and social media strategies.
(vi) Setting a national target for the percentage of teachers in a school with a representative with a similar target for the percentage of teachers in a school with a trained representative;
(vii) A specific national plan to achieve these targets;
(viii) Asking associations and divisions to set similar targets and to adopt local plans for achieving them; and
(ix) Continue to provide extra resources to associations and divisions facing extreme challenges through the pilot projects.
Conference also recognises the vital importance of protecting our democratic campaigning and representative structures beyond the school level. The work to achieve this must include:
(a)
(b)
Ensuring that each association and division has a functioning Officer group with the time needed to carry out its work and good succession planning; and
Creating the space for local officers to carry out campaigning work by ensuring that they are not overwhelmed by casework.
Conference reaffirms our belief that teachers would be stronger, and their position greatly enhanced, if the various unions agreed to merge on the basis of a single democratic union of teachers. Conference instructs the Executive to campaign for and produce a strategy, on this basis, for such a merger.
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MAINTAINING A LAY LED UNION
Conference believes that it is vitally important for the democracy and for the effectiveness of the Union to maintain and support an effective lay structure at
Association, Division and National level. Conference recognises that the
Government remains determined to prevent or drastically reduce the release of elected union representatives at these levels to carry out their duties.
Conference notes that, despite the good work done by the Union to prevent it, there is already evidence of facilities time being lost. It notes that the
Government is consulting on ways of accelerating this process.
Conference welcomes the determination of the Union to recruit, train and support school representatives as the first line of support for members and the first level of organising. It also welcomes the work of the Union’s staff in support of members. It recognises and values the creation and work of Organisers, of
Division Support Officers and of Casework Support Officers But it reminds the
Executive that these cannot be a substitute for teachers representing teachers at a level beyond the individual school. They cannot be a substitute for Division and Association Officers and Executive Members with time freed to represent and organise their colleagues.
Conference reiterates its instruction to the Executive:
1.
2.
3.
Look fundamentally at how our lay structure can remain the leading element in our Union.
Consider how far this can be achieved by the defence of facilities time.
Examine the extent to which extra resources may be needed to achieve this, and how they can be obtained.
PROFESSIONAL UNITY
In view of the highly successful unity conference held on March 1st 2014,
Conference congratulates the Union, and instructs the Executive to build on this historic event as a step towards professional unity.
Conference notes the success of the Professional Unity Conference, held in
March 2014 and believes the Executive should consider holding a follow-up conference in a years’ time.
While acknowledging that the past year has seen the pressures of constant campaigning place onerous and unprecedented demands on Union resources, at all levels, nonetheless, Conference endorses the professional unity resolution passed at Annual Conference 2013 and notes the action taken to implement the resolution including the successful Professional Unity
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Conference held in London on 1 March 2014 attended by members of NUT,
ATL, NASUWT, UCAC and UCU. Conference further notes the support for further discussions regarding professional unity from the members of all teacher unions who attended the conference. Conference calls on the
Executive to implement any outstanding action point without delay.
Conference instructs the Executive to continue to work with all teacher unions to promote the cause of professional unity, to encourage closer working between teacher unions at local and school level and to develop opportunities for regional and Wales professional unity conferences during 2014.
Conference believes that the decision by the NASUWT leadership to withdraw from a national strike on pay, pensions and workload does not in any way undermine the case for a single teachers union. Conference believes that we should seek to build united meetings of all teacher unions in schools wherever possible and encourage those meetings to pressure all their leaders to seek to unite in a single union.
Conference also welcomes the highly successful, varied and continuing programme of joint action undertaken with NASUWT since Autumn 2012.
However, whilst believing that co-operation between education unions is a good thing, Conference believes that moving beyond co-operation to organisational unity is both a necessity and a top priority.
Conference instructs the Executive to hold a series of similar open regional conferences on professional unity with a final national conference being held before the next Annual Conference. Further, Conference instructs the
Executive to, where possible, ensure that these conferences be organised jointly with other education unions who are supportive so spreading the cost and the organisational work.
Finally, Conference instructs the Executive to bring to Conference, if serious moves towards greater organisational unity within the education sector have not already occurred, an outline plan for developing professional unity to be put to Conference for adoption and thereafter to the other education unions and to the profession as a whole.
PROMOTING DISABILITY EQUALITY
Conference notes with concern the on-going attacks on disabled people by the coalition government and certain sections of the media.
Further, Conference notes the successful legal challenge to the closing of the
Independent Living Fund, congratulates Disabled People Against the Cuts and agrees to reaffiliate. However, Conference is dismayed at the Government’s further attempts to close this vital support to disabled people with high support needs and pass it to the diminishing pool of Local Authority support .
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Conference instructs the Executive to support the campaign against ILF closure and other disability benefit cuts.
Conference looks to the Union to support its disabled members who find themselves hardest hit by austerity cuts and the target of a scapegoat culture which, at worst criminalises them.
Conference calls on the executive to renew their efforts to show solidarity with disabled members by:
1.
2.
3.
4. undertaking a media campaign to counteract the lies told in the right wing media; advertising the benefits of NUT membership for disabled teachers as widely as possible; developing and delivering disability equality training which is available to all union members; exploring the best ways of organising disabled members at school, association, division, regional and national level.
The above is to be accomplished by the time of Conference 2015.
TRANSGENDER TEACHERS VISIBILITY AND RIGHTS
Conference recognises that trans teachers are a very isolated, almost invisible minority who experience significant and often life-changing discrimination.
Conference understands that because of discrimination, prejudice and a lack of understanding from and information for employers, most trans teachers do not have the option to maintain a positive successful teaching career, even where they love teaching and aspire to continue.
Conference further notes the research done by the Humanist Society in 2013 which discovered that 46 schools had reintroduced the wording of Section 28 about ‘the promotion of homosexuality’ into their policies. This included a disproportionate number of Academies. This poses a real threat to LGBT rights and any progressive equality policy in schools. It makes the possibility of transitioning even more difficult.
Conference believes that education is a key tool for transforming attitudes and a diverse teaching profession is essential to provide a wide range of role models.
Conference remembers Lucy Meadows, a young trans teacher and NUT member, who was subjected to personal and transphobic abuse from a mainstream newspaper, who died last year. Lucy had been supported by her school and colleagues but her death reminds Conference of the prejudice and
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isolation created when homophobic and transphobic attitudes are used to bully and victimise workers.
Conference therefore believes that Union has a specific role to play in defending transgendered teachers’ rights and opposing vigorously any return to the language of Section 28.
Conference pays tribute to this young union activist and in remembrance would like the legacy of this event to promote a wider understanding amongst the membership.
Conference instructs the executive to:
1. mark Transgender Remembrance Day each year via twitter, the NUT website and the Teacher magazine;
2. highlight and support any future key research on Transgender Teachers and the effects of discrimination;
3. update our current resources for schools and divisions to use in supporting Trans members as well as other LGB members in being OUT at work;
4. campaigns against the policies of schools which use the language of
‘promoting homosexuality’, echoing the institutionalised prejudice of
Section 28;
5. produce an Union model policy for schools on Sex and Relationships
Education to combat the existing bad practice;
6. actively encourage all schools to celebrate LGBT History Month;
7. highlight to the wider membership good practice models within schools and divisions, training events and publications for challenging homophobic and transphobic bullying;
8. respond vigorously, and publicly if necessary, to media harassment of our LGBT members;
9. support and publicise LGBT networks both within the NUT, TUC, and any outside the union, in order to create more awareness of the support available for our LGBT members;
10. support Schools Out as an organisation that works for LGB and T people in education together with its sister projects The Classroom and LGBT
History Month; and
11. collect more data about the issues faced by BME/LGBT Teachers and promote campaigns for Equality for those individuals.
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ADDRESSING INEQUALITIES FOR BLACK TEACHERS
Conference is concerned that diversity within the workplace remains an issue and how inequalities continue to impact on black teachers at all stages of their careers.
Conference is further concerned that the removal of the requirement to Equality
Impact Assessments- a key tool for assessing how particular policies impact on different groups in society, will increase institutional racism in the workplace.
Conference is alarmed that in the current climate of staffing cuts and reduced provisions that equality issues are being regarded as a luxury rather than a necessity.
Conference condemns the current system around appraisal, pay, progression and promotion which affects all teachers and has a disproportionately adverse effect on black teachers.
Conference notes that black teachers are frequently the victims of the abuse of capability procedures and that teachers who are women, over 55, and black are at the greatest threat of being dismissed.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
1. implement appropriate systematic procedures for ethnic monitoring at school, local authority and national levels, to enable data to be collated, analysed and utilised more effectively in strategic planning;
2. collect gender, age and ethnic data regarding dismissals and the use of capability procedures. The data should then be used to challenge Local
Authority Governing Bodies and Academies with discrimination cases, as well as to inform and influence the Union’s own internal processes;
3. survey black members on their experiences of discrimination in the workplace and associations, and actions that were taken to address it;
4. promote diversity and equality training for all Union elected and full time officers and school based representatives;
5. work with School Governor One Stop Shop to encourage school governors to receive training on diversity and equality in the workplace;
6. consult with schools and local authorities about providing comprehensive data on recruitment and retention which enable career paths of black teachers to be tracked, and such data being available nationally; and
7. ensure that the role of Principal Officer for Race Equality (which was one of the central elements of the ‘Black Teachers’ Memorandum’ passed at
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A nnual Conference 1991) remains as a discrete role within the Union‘s staffing structure.
DEMOCRACY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Conference notes that the Task Group on Executive Member Representation set up in 2013 is due to report in 2015.
Conference further notes that amongst other issues the Task Group has gender balance in its remit.
Conference instructs the Executive Task Group to also consider fixed terms of office in its deliberations.
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